Fare Wars

Travel agent Karen Alexander was cuddling her 18-month-old son on the sofa of her home Tuesday night when she realized from a TV commercial that another airline price war had taken off.Since Tuesday, when Northwest Airlines unveiled its adult-flies-free-when-a-child-travels fare, all the major carriers have kicked in with half-price discounts that have thrilled the public but swamped Baltimore-area travel agents with more calls than they can handle."

Airfares are slowly rising.Round-trips to many domestic cities are $50 to $100 higher than they were a year ago. The cheapest fare to the West Coast, for example, is $378 -- up $40 from the $338 fare that expired Oct. 31.Still, there's good news. The price boosts are relatively moderate, and fare wars are likely to continue through the middle of next year.What's more, winter travel to Europe is cheaper than ever.The airlines can't charge full excursion fares -- $468 to the West Coast -- because discount fare wars have raged since last spring.

What began Monday as a regional skirmish between airlines escalated yesterday into a full-blown fare war when American and Delta said that they would offer discount prices after similar moves by USAir and United.Travelers who delayed booking their fall flights in hopes of such a development now will have their patience rewarded.The new discounts will be on sale through Oct. 31 and are good for travel between Sept. 4 and Dec. 15, with certain blackout dates around the Thanksgiving holidays.

With their latest round of airfare cuts, the nation's air carriers are trying to encourage even the most penny-pinching travelers to plan vacations now.Several of the nation's major airlines, including Continental USAir and Northwest, have announced they will match discount ticket prices announced Tuesday by American Airlines.Mindful of market share -- particularly in light of the current soft demand for travel -- the carriers have duplicated American's fares, essentially locking in industry-wide low ticket prices to some of the nation's most popular destinations.

A decision by British Airways to cut round-trip airfares to London by one-third sparked a trans-Atlantic fare war yesterday, as competing airlines rushed to slash their London-bound rates.Pan Am Corp., parent of Pan American World Airways, announced yesterday that it had "basically matched" the British Airways cuts announced Sunday, while TWA said it would cut in half fares to London from any U.S. airport also served by British Airways.In the Baltimore-Washington area, reservations agents for USAir Corp.